Conan is the title of several Marvel Comics comic books starring the titular Conan the Barbarian.
Conan provides examples of:
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In general
- The Ageless: In "The Forever Phial", the immortal wizard Ranephi cannot die of old age, though he can still be killed like any man.
- All There in the Manual: Roy Thomas wrote three nonfiction books called "Barbarian Life" that discusses the production of every single issue of the series.
- Artificial Limbs: There was a story featuring three outlaws who'd run afoul of Conan, and had one Anatomy Arsenal each (well, two did. One just had a plate in his head).
- Then there was Boraq D' Sharaq, who managed to have a Swiss Army Anatomy Arsenal that he could easily swap between in fights.
- Ascended Fanboy: Most people assume Roy Thomas was this. Whilst he was instrumental in getting Conan his own comic, it was Gil Kane
who was the big Robert E. Howard fanboy. He did a lot of the artwork for Conan in The '70s, and he couldn't have been happier.- Roy Thomas notably became a fan of Conan the Barbarian because he was looking into finding a character outside of Marvel's usual superhero wheelhouse to adapt. He devoured the Robert E. Howard stories and became the character's everlasting promoter.
- Ballistic Discount: In Savage Sword of Conan #75, Captain Bor'Aqh Sharaq has a smith construct him a Swiss-Army Appendage that can be fitted with a sword, an axe or a spring-powered throwing iron. Naturally, he kills the smith after the job's done.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: In "Citadel at the Center of Time", the Babylonian king Shamash-shum-ukin was a sorcerer who avoided his recorded death via Time Travel.
- Book Burning: Ranephi, knowing that he will soon be dead, burns his collection of scrolls and spell books to keep his arcane knowledge from falling into the wrong hands.
- Born as an Adult: In "At the Mountain of the Moon-God" (Savage Sword of Conan #3), the giant egg which Conan discovers while climbing the titular mountain hatches into a fully-grown Pteranodon at the story's climax.
- The Cake Is a Lie: Conan meets the Living Tarim and discovers that he is a severely inbred man with a mental disability as well as deformities. He is far from the living god that everyone is willing to fight and die for.
- Chekhov's Gun: In "Citadel at the Center of Time", Conan enters the city of Akbitana and immediately takes note of a ballista set up in the town square. At the story's climax, he uses that ballista to kill a rampaging tyrannosaurus.
- Collector of the Strange: Shamash-shum-ukin keeps a collection of the various time-displaced things which have come out of the Well at the Center of Time. It includes such things as an Egyptian pharaoh, a Pteranodon, an entire tribe of Neanderthals, and a Tyrannosaurus rex.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: In the early issues of King Conan the titular character bears a strong resemblance to Charles Bronson.
- Continuity Snarl: Inevitable with Conan canon, but an interesting little hiccup occurred in Savage Sword; Recurring villain Ogerd Vadislav was reintroduced in an issue, despite having been swallowed up by an Eldritch Abomination. There was an L. Sprague de Camp story explaining how this happened, and in a later issue of Savage Sword explained this too... in a completely different way to the pastiche, as Marvel didn't have permission to run that story, so they just winged it. Later, they did get permission to adapt the short story, so they ran it, and attempted to explain how Ogerd survived another attack. It worked... kind of.
- Crossover:
- Happened a few times with the Marvel Universe back when the Conan comic rights were owned by Marvel. In fact, the Conanverse version of the god Set became a major part of the MU's Back Story. Of course, all these team-ups began in the Mighty Marvel Manner.
- There was a Conan/Elric crossover in Marvel's Conan #14-15. No, really. Notably these comics were written by Michael Moorcock himself.
- This story would receive a sequel in Savage Sword #189 — licensing issues, however, would force the writers to write around Elric, referring to him instead as "The Albino", although weirdly his foe Prince Gaynor the Damned is not only referred to by name, but appears in the story's climax for a brief battle with Conan.
- This inspired the artists the Shallow Parody comic Thrud the Barbarian in White Dwarf to do a story where Thrud encountered "Eric of Boneymaloney," a "Melancholy Crimson-Eyed Wimp".
- Conan managed to have a few team-ups with Kull, and a nice two-part team-up with Solomon Kane ("The Savage Sword of Conan #219-#220").
- What If? Vol .1 No. 39 features an alternate take on an event in The Mighty Thor Annual Vol. 1 No. 8 where a young Thor's wandering in a cave containing portals through time and space, instead of leading him the Trojan War as happened in the original story, instead deposits him in the Hyborian Age, where he encounters Conan.
- What If? Vol. 2 No. 16 features an alternate take on an event in Uncanny X-Men #137, showing Wolverine getting lost in the Watcher's realities and ending up in the Hyborian Age.
- Dem Bones: In "The Valley of the Howling Shadows" (The Savage Sword of Conan #118, November 1985), Conan and his followers meet a group of talking and walking skeletons. The skeletons are the nicest and friendliest characters in the entire story, but their dialogue creeps Conan out. They claim that Conan looks familiar to them, suspect that they have seen him before, and ask him whether he is related to them through their families. They also indicate that they would like to know him better. Conan retreats quickly. Notably, for most of the scene, the skeletons pay no attention to the other characters present.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In the second Marvel run, Conan, after being poisoned and killed by an evil witch, meets Crom himself in the afterlife. When Crom reveals that he doesn't care about the world of the living or has any intention to stop the witch, Conan, incensed after spending a lifetime of fighting in and swearing by Crom's name, attacks the god. It goes as well as you'd expect. Crom eventually sends Conan back to the world of the living, but swears that as punishment, Conan is now cursed to live forever and watch everything he holds dear, including his own strength and legend, fade away to nothing. Conan isn't worried.
- Digital Destruction: The recolouring of the Barry Windsor-Smith issues, which removes Windsor-Smith's own expressive, balanced colouring note with muddy, realistic earth tones and secondary colours. Talked about by artist Tom Scioli here.
- Dolled-Up Installment;
- The Curse of the Undead-Man is based on Robert E. Howard's Dark Agnes story, Mistress Of Death with Conan added and Agnes replaced with Red Sonja.
- Conan The Barbarian #17 was based on Howard's short story, The Gods of Bal-Sagoth with Conan replacing Black Turlogh.
- Downer Ending: The War of the Tarim Arc ends with the sacking of the Kingdom of Makkalet by King Turan, the death of its king, and its queen forced into becoming The Exile. Conan Did Not Get the Girl because she's pregnant with her late husband's child. Even worse, the living Tarim that everyone was fighting over is dead (and used as a prop post-mortem).
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Sonja is a lot more cunning and deceptive character in the beginning as well as willing to use her sexuality as a weapon. She dances on a tavern table to get Conan's attention and leads him on to use him to help her rob a wizard's tower.
- Easter Egg: During the eighth issue, there are piles of coins in one scene. One panel features a hidden message among the coins: "I must be mad to sit here drawing all these coins".
- Evil Sorcerer: There was no end of these during Roy Thomas' run with one of the most formidable being Kharam Akkad during the War of the Tarim.
- The Farmer and the Viper: In "Sleeper Beneath the Sands", Ahmed Mullah's people rescue a dying Olgerd Vladislav and nurse him back to health. He repays their kindness by murdering their chieftain and taking their priestess hostage to force them to lay a trap for Conan.
- Feuding Families: In Savage Sword of Conan, Conan visits Cimmeria to discover that his family's rivals, the Clan Diarmiad, has used foul magic to murder his parents and his relatives, as well as turning his sister Siobhan into their tortured slave. Conan vows revenge against them and in the end, manages to slaughter every single Diarmiad responsible, though his sister is mortally injured and dies a little after her brother fulfilled his vow. Conan is left the only immediate survivor of his family because of this feud.
- Fight Dracula: In a one issue of The Savage Sword of Conan, Solomon Kane slays Dracula in a continuation to a story from Dracula Lives!.
- The Fool: Rufio, in King Conan.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Issue 24# "The Song of Red Sonja" is absolutely dripping with this and Roy Thomas has confirmed all of it was intentional via Word of God in his Barbarian Life books. Phallic imagery is repleat through the book to represent Conan's sexual frustration, Conan gets an erection that disturbs the water during a bath scene, and he makes multiple references to masturbation that Roy was certain the Comic Books Code Authority would catch (but didn't).
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: Conan the Adventurer became a Crucial Type A and Type B. A talisman of a long-sleeping god was scattered into 6 pieces, and 7 wandering adventurers were promised riches if they found all 6 pieces. Turns out it was the god tricking them so he could initiate a Class 5.
- Historical Domain Character: The antagonist of "Citadel at the Center of Time" is a temporally displaced Shamash-shum-ukin, the brother of Ashurbanipal and king of Babylon.
- Hollywood Natives: In Conan the Barbarian (2019), Picts are portrayed as like some pretty stereotypical Native Americans.note However, they're portrayed far more sympathetically than in the original stories, as while fierce it's emphasized the Picts are defending themselves and hostile to outsiders with very good reason, as the Hyborians to the south want their land.
- Idiot Ball: Conan is depicted as blinded by his own greed and acts idiotic in the story "The Valley of the Howling Shadows" (The Savage Sword of Conan #118, November 1985). Early in the story, Conan learns of a location called the Valley of Howls, which is the source of great treasure and of a high-priced hallucinogenic drug called Zuk. But that only a single cloaked figure exits the Valley to trade items, and that the treasure hunters who entered the Valley never returned. Motivated by greed, Conan decides to seek the Valley, and leads his current love interest (who just saved his life) and a stranded military unit (who chose him as their leader) into the Valley. Right at the entry of the Valley is a Sphinx (the creature, not the statue) who warns him that the Valley is a location of nightmares and there is no hope for those who enter. Indeed Conan encounters increasingly surreal horrors and nightmares within the Valley, and every local human and creature seems to be insane. His followers keep getting killed on the way, but Conan keeps on going. By the time he gets to the treasure, everyone is either dead or has abandoned him. Conan suddenly realizes that he may be permanently trapped in "this evil place" and is desperate to escape. The cloaked figure (which is not human after all) appears to show him the only way out. Conan escapes with only the clothes on his back and his sword.
- Immortality Inducer: In "The Forever Phial", the wizard Ranephi gained eternal life by drinking from the titular phial. He has since come to regret that decision.
- Joker Immunity: Ogerd, Wraarl, Boraq d'Sharaq
- It got pretty stupid with d'Sharaq; pretty much any encounter that even Conan would've had trouble with, Boraq just sorta shrugged it off to plague Conan some more, to the point where even the writers seemed to be getting sick of him. His last appearance to date had him as a Human Popsicle, where a female character hinted to Conan that he could totally just shatter Boraq into pieces. Conan didn't, but at least Boraq's only shown up in reprints... so far...
- Just Friends: Conan and Red Sonja. During the times they've adventured together it's become clear that Conan is attracted to Red Sonja. Red Sonja, on the other hand, does not feel the same way about Conan.
- Knife-Throwing Act: In Savage Sword of Conan #119, Conan (in a scene that is undoubtedly a Shout-Out to the movie The Vikings) is forced to play a game where his sister's head is stuck through the middle of a hollow target and he must throw axes to sever her braids while blindfolded. Luckily, he manages not to slay his own sister; and since he ran out of sisterly braids while still having an axe left, he indulges in a manly jest and throws the weapon at Magloclun, cutting the clan leader's own braid.
- Lighter and Softer: The Comics Code-constrained series compared to the original stories. Averted with The Savage Sword of Conan.
- Luke, I Might Be Your Father: "The Valley of the Howling Shadows" (The Savage Sword of Conan #118, November 1985) is a pretty surreal horror story. At some point Conan meets a mad man who keeps insisting that he is Conan's real father. Unfortunately for Conan, the man's main goal is Offing the Offspring.
- Master-Apprentice Chain: Implied in the story "Disciples" (Savage Sword of Conan #184); Conan's disciples Eiji, Ikuo and Jiro are implied to have been directed to Conan by Conan's own former teacher, the broadsword-master Sennan.
- Mercy Kill: Defied in "Sleeper Beneath the Sands". Conan briefly considers putting an arrow into Olgerd to spare him the agony of being crushed in the titular monster's claws, but ultimately decides to let Olgerd suffer.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: An almost comical scene in "Homecoming" (The Savage Sword of Conan #119, December, 1985) involves this. Conan is facing an evil Cimmerian clan (the Diarmiads), has personal reasons to hate them all, and he has already managed to eliminate several of their most experienced fighters. The remaining leaders of the clan are terrified of Conan, and try to find ways to kill him from a distance. Dumoric, a rookie fighter and one of the youngest Diarmiads, instead decides to stand up to the invincible foe. He approaches Conan, challenges him to a sword duel, and tells Conan that he has no fear of him. Conan replies that Dumoric is a young fool and needs to be taught a lesson. Conan kills Dumoric with a single blow and then forgets about the boy.
- Outlaw Town: The Abode of the Damned, in the story of the same name, in The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian #11 (loosely adapted from the Robert E. Howard story "The Country of the Knife").
- Sealed Evil in a Can: In "Sleeper Beneath the Sands", Ahmed Mullah's people have kept the titular monster dormant for eons by performing a ritual every fifty years. When Olgerd Vladislav disrupts the ritual out of his desire to get revenge on Conan, the Sleeper awakens immediately and begins killing everything in sight. Dhira manages to put the Sleeper back in its can at the cost of her life.
- Self-Disposing Villain: In "At the Mountain of the Moon-God", Conan is escaping from a fortress by climbing down a crevasse in the floor. Quzak, the fortress commander, tries to kill Conan by pouring a cauldron full of boiling oil down the crack after him. Quzak tips the cauldron over the wrong way, however, dousing himself in the boiling oil.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Happens whenever Conan gets lucky in the non-Savage Sword stories.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Zigzagged in the story "Disciples" (Savage Sword of Conan #184); whilst Conan is a brutal instructor to the three not-Japanese warriors who come seeking his tutelage, he warns them beforehand that his training will be arduous, and he is not deliberately abusive towards them. As they impress him with his sincerity, master and apprentices legitimately bond.
- Slipping a Mickey: In "Citadel at the Center of Time", the dancer Alhambra slips some powder into Conan's drink while flirting with him. The drug quickly renders Conan woozy, though he almost manages to fight it off before Alhambra knocks him out with a Tap on the Head.
- Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Taurus and his sister Radegund undergo this in Conan the King, they go from being a toddler and the infant they were in King Conan to young teenagers.
- Surpassed the Teacher: Played with in the story "Disciples" (Savage Sword of Conan #184); after Conan declares his training of his apprentices Eiji, Ikuo and Jiro complete, they later return for a formal, no-holds-barred fight to establish if they have succeeded at this — or die trying. They lose, with each taking a crippling injury — Ikuo is blinded, Jiro loses a leg, and Eiji loses his right arm. There is no malice or hatred on either side, however, and in fact Conan is shown to be rather dismayed about the whole affair, as he'd grown to genuinely like the trio. His own former teacher, Sennan, comforts Conan that neither he nor his students failed — their respect for him made their devotion waver, whilst his for them is why he didn't slay them.
- Swiss-Army Appendage: Captain Bor'Aqh Sharaq has a prosthetic arm that can be fitted with a sword, an axe or a spring-powered throwing iron.
- Tap on the Head: Alhambra knocks Conan out by whacking him upside the head with a frying pan.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: During his crossover with Elric, Conan constantly complains about Elric's presence, bickers with him, and generally spends his time complaining about magic and sorcerers being evil and unmanly. At the story's climax, he parts ways only after avowing never to work with Elric again and damning him as an inhuman monster incapable of honest human emotion. Which, if you know anything about Elric, is hilariously inaccurate.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: A tyrannosaur is the centerpiece of Shamash-shum-ukin's collection of time-displaced oddities in "Citadel at the Center of Time". Conan is alarmed by the beast when he first sees it, even though it sits at the bottom of a deep pit where it can do him no harm. When it gets loose at the climax and goes on a rampage through the surrounding town, everyone who sees the tyrannosaur is terrified of it, and even Conan is struck dumb by fear for a moment before he regains his wits and tries to put down the rampaging monster.
- Terror-dactyl: The monstrous pterosaur featured in "At the Mountain of the Moon-God" is is scaly, bipedal, and has teeth, and can fly while grasping a fully-grown human in each talon. The narrative acknowledges that last inaccuracy and brushes it off in the same panel:In a later age, learned men will say that what happens next is impossible — that such monsters did all their gripping with their nether limbs. Yet across a chasm of millions of years — who is there that can truly know? Suffice it to say — Khossus and Vateesa are grasped, and that firmly!
- Time Travel: In "Citadel at the Center of Time", the antagonist is a Babylonian sorcerer-king who traveled back in time to escape the armies of Assyria.
- The Unfavorite: Taurus, mainly due to his siblings being so much cooler/nicer although it turns out he was a changeling Switched at Birth for the real Taurus... who later made a Heroic Sacrifice for his parents. At least, that's how it was until #50, when the aforementioned Aborted Arc was brought back
- Vengeance Feels Empty: Though the main character frequently takes pleasure in brutal revenge, this trope pops up when Conan's ally Zula slays his former master. After Conan asks him how it felt, Zula responds that it simply felt hollow. Interestingly, Red Sonja also mentions this trope during this conversation when she says she was unable to slay the man who ravished her after he had been badly tortured.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: In Conan the Barbarian #3, the main focus of the story was The Battle of Clontarf... and how it heralded the death of a god. Given that this issue was based on "The Twilight of the Grey Gods", one of Howard's non-Conan stories that was about the Battle of Clontarf, this isn't surprising.
- War for Fun and Profit: The War of the Tarim is supposed to be about rescuing the kidnapped holy man who is a Physical God. Roy Thomas makes it clear the Prince of Turan is only interested in sacking the city for its wealth.
- What Have I Done: Pubilus says this in Conan the King #46, after Zenobia's fourth child dies in childbirth when he refused to let the Asurans protect both mother and child.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: In "The Forever Phial", an immortal wizard has grown tired of his unending life and wants to die. His immortality does not prevent him from being killed, so when he learns that Conan is in town, the wizard does everything in his power to force the barbarian into a confrontation. As a result, Conan storms the wizard's tower and grants the wizard his wish.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Conan the Barbarian' #23 (i.e. Red Sonja's debut) is essentially a adaptation of Robert E. Howard's short story The Shadow of the Vulture, an historical work set during The Cavalier Years where a Christian knight called Gottfried is pursued by an Crimean Tatar (the titular Vulture) in service to the Ottoman caliph Suleyman the Magnificent for an perceived slight, and he is rescued by an red-haired swashbuckler known as Red Sonya of Rogatino. In this issue, Conan replaces Gottfried, Sonya becomes Sonja and Suleyman is turned into Yezdigerd. The setting is also updated from Vienna to Makkalet.
Conan the Barbarian Vol. 1
Conan the Barbarian Vol. 3
Savage Tales
Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1
Giant-Size Conan
King Conan
Conan the King
Conan the Adventurer
Conan
Conan the Savage
Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 2
